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Top 10 most important people in the history

of computers

Posted on 7 May 2010 at 12:00, by Expert Reviews Staff

It's hard to imagine a world without computers, so reliant on them we've become. What makes

this more surprising is that computers, although considered and thought about for a long time,

have only recently (in terms of history) been available. The profound impact they've had on our

lives, both directly and indirectly with the inventions and technologies they've helped create,

make them one of the most important inventions in human history. This week we've rounded up

the ten most important people in the history of computers. We've listed them in rough

chronological order, so that numbering's not really important and there are bound to be some

people that we've had to miss off the list.

10. Charles Babbage (26 December 1791 - 18 October 1871)

Charles Babbage first came up with the idea of a mechanical computer after seeing how

numerical tables calculated by humans (called computers) had a high-degree of error. He decided

that by creating a device for doing the same job, the errors could be eliminated. The difference

engine was born: a machine capable of calculating the values of polynomial functions

automatically. Sadly, although funding was in place, the difference engine was never completed.

Not deterred, Babbage turned his hand to the Difference Engine No. 2, an improve calculating

machine, and the Analytical Engine, which was the first

programmable computer in existence. He even drew up plans for

the first printer. Babbage died before any of his designs could be

built, but his influence should not be underestimated and his

designs inspired other people to work on computers.

His work has since been proved viable. The Difference Engine No.

2 was constructed between 1989 and 1991 at the London Science

Museum, using 19th century manufacturing tolerances: it worked

(and continues to work) perfectly, performing calculations to 31

digits. His printer was also constructed and shown to work - proof

of Babbage's genius.

Regardless of the fact that his computer was never built while he was alive, Babbage opened the

floodgates to a new world of computing machines. Without him, we may not have the modern

computers we have today.

9. Alan Turing (23 June 1912 - 7 June 1954)

Alan Turing was principally a mathematician, most famous for helping break the German's

Enigma code during World War II at Bletchley Park. It was here, though, that Turing turned to

computers to help break codes faster, saving millions of lives in the process and shortening the

length of the war.

The initial machine Turing created was the Bombe: an electromechanical device devised to help

the code-breakers device the key of the day the German's were

using on their Enigma machines. Using a menu provided by the

codebreaking team from a crib (a selection of plaintext that

corresponded to ciphertext), the Bombe operators could quickly set

up the machine and let it calculate possible Enigma settings, which

could then be verified by hand. The design on the Bombe was

enhanced by Gordon Welchman, and the rest, as they say, is

history.

After the war Turing was an influential figure and came up with the

Turing Test: a method by which to test artificial intelligence.

Prosecuted for homesexual acts, Turing committed suicide in 1954,

and we'll never know the full extent of where his fierce intellect

could have led us.

8. Tommy Flowers

Another member of the Bletchley Park World War II team, Tommy Flowers was instrumental in

building the world's first electronic computer: Colossus. The principle purpose of the machine

was to break the Lorenz Cipher, used by high-level Germans, including Adolf Hitler.

Built using valves, the computer was five times faster and more flexible than its predecessor,

Heath Robinson. Colossus was the first programmable, digital,

computer and revolutionary at the time. It's success in code breaking

was demonstrated when Eisenhower was handed a decrypt showing

that Hitler wasn't going to move more troops into Normandy and the

D-Day landings stood a high-chance of success.

After the war Flowers' achievements went largely overlooked until

the '70s, due to the secret nature of the work. However, he continued

to have a profound impact at the General Post Office, helping to

design the all-electronic telephone exchange.

7. John von Neumann (28 December 1903 - 8 February 1957)

John von Neumann was one of the greatest mathematicians of our recent times, making a huge

impact on a wide range of fields, but it's for computer science that we'll recognise him here.

It was von Neumann who came up with the computer architecture

that's named after him. In a paper, he described an architecture in

which both data and the program are stored in a computer's memory

in the same address space, making for more flexible computers that

were easier to program.

This remained the default computer architecture until more recent

times, where development of technology has allowed for more

complex designs.

6. Douglas Engelbart (30 January 1925)

Douglas Engelbart might not be a name that's well known, but he was a pioneer in the

development of the modern computer. While working at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI),

he created a research department with an agenda entitled Augmenting Human Intellect: A

Conceptual Framework. In other words, creating methods by which people would interact with

computers.

It was here that he created the mouse (then a wooden shell with two

metal wheels in it), still the de facto way that we interact with

computers today. He and his team also created bit-mapped screens,

hypertext and some precursors to the graphical user interface (GUI).

The research started here allowed Xerox to continue development

and come up with the basis of the windowed-operating system that

we all use today.

5. Steve Jobs (24 February 1955)

The world seems to split between those that love Apple and its products and those that hate it.

Regardless of which camp you're in there's one thing you have to give Apple and Jobs credit for

and that's taking an idea and making it desirable.

In 1976 Steve Jobs, along with Stephen Wozniak and Ronald Wayne founded Apple. Although

the company had early success with the Apple and, in particular, Apple II computers, it was the

original Macintosh (1984) that changed things: it was the first computer to have a graphical user

interface and mouse rather than a command line interface.

The Macintosh really highlights Jobs' ability to take existing technology and improve it, making

it desirable. In the case of this computer the graphical user interface

had been developed by Xerox and the mouse by Douglas Engelbart;

it was Apple that made them successful.

In 1985 Jobs was relieved of his duties as head of the Macintosh

and Apple's fames and fortunes took a nosedive. It wasn't until Jobs

was brought back on board in 1996, after Apple bought his NeXT

Computer company that Apple's fortunes turned round and it started

to make a profit.

Since his return, Apple has produced the iPod, the most popular MP3 player in the world, the

iPhone, which has sparked an entirely-new industry with Apps and the iPad. With OS X and the

move to Intel hardware, Apple is a leading company in the personal computer market.

His influence outside of the computer industry has been immense, too, with his Pixar company

(later acquired by Disney) kick-starting computer-generated films with the incredibly Toy Story.

4. Philip Don Estridge (23 June 1937 - 2 August 1985)

Philip Don Estridge, known as Don Estridge, led the development of the IBM Personal

Computer (PC), arguably the most important computer in the history of computers. It's the

creation of this computer that's led to the types of computer that we have today.

The IBM PC was designed as a way for the company to get into the small computer market,

dominated at the time by Commodore, Atari and Apple. The

revolutionary part about the computer was that it was designed by

using off-the-shelf parts available from OEMs, rather than creating

brand-new technology. This let IBM create the PC in less than a

year and keep prices down to affordable levels.

Even more surprising for the time was that IBM decided to use an

open architecture, so that other manufacturers could produce and

sell peripherals without having to purchase a license. As we all

know, this open architecture also meant that other companies could

start creating their own IBM-compatible computers. It's this

architecture that exists today and even Apple has changed to

embrace it when it switched to using Intel processors in its Mac

computers.

The IBM PC also opened up the door for Intel's and Microsoft's success. Without Don Estridge

and IBM the world would be a very different place.

3. Gordon Moore (3 January 1929)

Gordon Moore is justly famous for his eponymous law, which describes how the number of

transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every

two years. Although an observation at the time, Moore's company Intel (co-founded with Robert

Noyce) has adhered to it, delivering faster and more complicated processor designs.

It's through Intel that Gordon Moore's main contribution to computers is recognised. Initially a

semi-conductor company, Intel dramatically shifted its focus to

processors. The company supplied its processors to IBM for use in

the PC, and with the success of that market, all of the IBM PC

clones.

The company has seen off competition and has seen its architecture

become the de facto standard in everything from high-end servers to

entry-level laptops. Even Apple has switched and is running its Mac

OS X on Intel architecture.

As the founder of Intel, Moore has helped shape the modern world and create the base

technology platform that the majority of the world uses, whether its Linux, Windows or Mac OS

X.

2. Bill Gates (28 October 1955)

Whatever you may think about Bill Gates, there's no doubting the impact that he's had on the

computer market. He's best known for founding Microsoft - a name that's synonymous with the

personal computer market.

Although Microsoft didn't actually invent DOS (Tim Paterson of

Seattle Computer Products) did, the company has based its fortunes

on it, exclusively licensing the OS and later buying it outright to

service IBM's PC. From DOS, Microsoft went on to create

Windows - the most successful operating system ever, and used by

the majority of people the world over.

Gates is a key figure in the success of Microsoft - equal parts

technology genius and business man, he's pushed, cajoled and

basically dictated the computer market. While Microsoft may have

lost its way a little and missed out on repeating its success online,

the company remains a powerful force.

Gates has moved on to charity work, with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He's promised

to give away the bulk of his fortune in charitable work, which makes it hard to hate him

completely.

1. Tim Berners-Lee (8 June 1955)

Of all the cool claims to fame, inventing the world wide web has to be the best. That honor lies

squarely with Tim Berners-Lee. While working as a contractor at CERN, he came up with a

system called ENQUIRE, which enabled sharing and updating information between researchers

using hypertext.

It was in 1989 when he returned to CERN that he saw an

opportunity to link hypertext to the internet (itself only actually a

way of connecting computer networks across the globe) and the

World Wide Web was born.

He designed and built the first web browser, created the first web

server and, in short, changed the entire world as we know it. We're

now so reliant on the internet that it's impossible to imagine life

without the world wide web.